10 Essential Call Center KPIs to Track

Tired of meaningless call center metrics?

Relying on the wrong KPIs frustrates agents and loses customers.

It also stops you from measuring the actual value of your team.

In this blog, we’ll identify the handful of call center KPIs that actually matter. This will help you in optimizing performance, demonstrating value, and justifying your budget.

Why Should Enterprises Track These Call Center KPIs?

When you track call center KPI metrics consistently, you can finally set clear performance goals and make smart decisions that actually lead to real business results.

• Stop Guessing What Customers Want: These call center KPIs are your direct window into what your customers are actually going through. This is how you find out what's causing headaches and what's making them happy.‍
• Make Performance Reviews Less Awkward: Using hard data takes all the guesswork out of the equation. You can set clear goals for your agents, so everyone knows exactly what they need to aim for.‍
• End Inconsistency: Ever worry that your customers' experience depends entirely on which agent they happen to get? The use of KPI in call centers put an end to that. They set a quality standard for everyone, so your customers get great support every single time.‍
• Spot Trouble Before It Explodes: A sudden dive in CSAT scores or a spike in abandoned calls isn't just a blip on a chart; it's a giant red flag. Tracking call center KPI metrics helps you keep an eye out for this.
  
  

10 Key Call Center KPIs that all Businesses Should Track

Don't think of these as call center metrics for the sake of metrics.

Think of them as tools to improve customer experience. Or for better insight:

1. First Call Resolution

First Call Resolution, or FCR, is all about an agent's ability to completely resolve a customer's issue during the very first interaction.

• Keeping your FCR high means your customers are happier and your team is more efficient.
  
• To improve this, empower agents with training, access to a knowledge base, and the authority to solve problems without escalation.
  
• First Call Resolution is a foundational call center KPI. And while it started with phone calls, the "one-touch resolution" principle is the gold standard for delivering an excellent customer experience on live chat, email, and social media.

2. Average Handle Time (AHT)

I've seen teams obsess over this KPI in call centers, but the reality is that it’s fine for your agents to spend more time on the call. It shows customers you care!

In simple terms, Average Handle Time is how long a call usually takes from start to finish.

• Now, while a lower AHT might look like your team is working more efficiently, you also have to make sure your customers are happy. They can absolutely tell when they're being rushed.
  
• Because what good is a fast call if the customer has to call back three more times? The goal is efficiency, not just a speedy exit.
  
  

3. Customer Satisfaction (CSAT)

This is typically a straightforward way to find out how happy they are. This usually by a quick survey where customers give you a rating on a scale or by using emojis.

By keeping an eye on your CSAT scores, you get the unfiltered truth about how your agents and processes are actually performing. No sugarcoating.

4. Average Speed of Answer (ASA)

Average Speed of Answer is all about how quickly your agents are picking up the calls that are waiting in line.

• It gives you a good idea of how easy it is for customers to reach your team, which has a direct impact on their frustration levels.
  
• That's why a high ASA leads to more people hanging up. I mean, do you enjoy listening to terrible hold music for ten minutes? Of course not.
  

5. Call Abandonment Rate or Average Abandonment Rate

This call center KPI keeps track of the percentage of callers who hang up before they even get to speak with an agent.

• Think of a high abandonment rate as a major warning sign, because it often points to deeper problems.
  
• Whatever the cause, this metric ultimately shows you where you're missing out on chances to help customers and retain their business.
  
  

6. Net Promoter Score (NPS)

NPS all comes down to one simple but powerful question. On a scale of 0-10, how likely are you to recommend our company to a friend or colleague?
People who respond are then grouped into Promoters (9-10), Passives (7-8), and Detractors (0-6).

To get the final score, you just reduce the percentage of Detractors from the percentage of Promoters. While not the most important call center KPI, it can be helpful to measure how your brand is looked at.

7. Customer Effort Score (CES)

Ready for a shocking concept? Customers want things to be easy.

CES looks at how much effort a customer had to put in to get their problem sorted out.

To figure this out, customers are asked to rate how easy their experience was. It turns out that when customers don't have to write a novel and fax it to three different departments, they are much more likely to stick around.

8. Customer Churn Rate (CCR)

Customer Churn Rate is the percentage of customers who stop doing business with you over a set period of time.

The reality is that interactions with customer service can heavily influence how this ends up going.

Churn rate is a call center KPI metric that gives you insight you can use to plan better customer retention strategies.

9. Average After Call Work Time (AWT)

Also known as Wrap-Up Time, AWT is the time an agent spends on tasks after they've hung up with a customer—you know, all the fun stuff.

This work usually involves logging notes, updating the CRM, or shooting off follow-up emails.

While all of this is necessary, figuring out how to do it more efficiently is a key way to free up your agents to be more available and productive

10. Occupancy Rate

The Occupancy Rate tells you what percentage of an agent's logged-in time is spent actively working on call-related tasks, compared to their total available time.

On one hand, a high occupancy rate can signal efficiency, but on the other, if it stays too high for too long, it can lead straight to agent burnout.

That's why it's such an essential call center KPI to watch for planning out your resources and managing your team.

How Call Center Technology Helps with Tracking KPIs

Listening to and checking all calls is impossible manually. That's where modern call center technology, especially tools that use AI, help. These can tools can help you measure a KPI in call centers by:

• Automatically Pinpointing Call Quality and Customer Feelings: AI can go through 100% of your calls, not just a small handful. This gives you unbiased data on call quality that is impossible to get any other way.
  

• Live Dashboards for Better Decisions: These dashboards help you spot trends right away. For instance, you can see a sudden drop in CSAT or a spike in AHT. This allows you to step in quickly and make decisions backed by real data.
  

• Automates Call Scoring Across the Board: Using AI applies the same scoring standards to every single call, which gets rid of human bias. This is how you measure performance fairly across all your agents and teams.
  

• Helps Create Best Practices and Measure Team Performance: You can use these insights to build out Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and training programs that are supported by data. These are proven to work for leveling up the whole team's performance.

Why Use Thunai to Track Call Center KPIs

Thunai connects directly with your call center software to automatically record, transcribe, and study every single conversation.

This AI app gives you immediate and useful information about your most important call center KPI metrics. This means you get 100% quality assurance (based on the standards you set for your brand)

You can see how every call is scored based on proprietary sentiment analysis. You can then export this information for other people in your company.

You can also connect Thunai directly to your CRM, automating data entry!

Ready to see how effective your support calls truly are? Try Thunai for free and find out!

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the 4 most common KPIs in a call center?

The four KPIs you'll almost always see being tracked are Customer Satisfaction (CSAT), Average Handle Time (AHT), First Response Time (FRT), and Call Abandonment Rate.

What are the standard KPI benchmarks for call centers?

Wish I could give you a magic number, but there isn't one. KPI standards can really change from one industry or company to another. However, some common goals to shoot for include a CSAT of 80% or higher, an ASA under 30 seconds, and a Call Abandonment Rate below 5%. It's always a good idea for a business to set its own standards based on its own history, not just what some other company is doing.

What's the difference between a KPI and a KRA in a BPO?

In the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) world, a KPI (Key Performance Indicator) is a specific number you track to check performance against a goal (like an AHT of 300 seconds). A KRA (Key Result Area), on the other hand, is a broader outcome that a person or team is responsible for (like Improving Customer Retention).

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